Ron Paul has officially won more that 60 delegates this weekend alone with wins over Mitt Romney in Maine, Nevada and Iowa Photo credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

Maine – Despite attempts earlier in the week by Maine’s Republican establishment to deter Ron Paul’s supporters from taking over the state convention, Ron Paul and his supporters officially took the state anyway.

Not only did Paul win the majority of the state’s delegates Sunday, his supporters also turned the entire Republican establishment on its head by also seating Paul supporters as Chairman and Secretary of the convention on Saturday, bringing a dramatic end to decades of status-quo politics in the Pine Tree State.

While it was a mere 4 votes that determined the outcome for the Convention Chair, the delegate battle itself was an entirely different story, as attendees of the convention Sunday voted Ron Paul delegates to, at least, 15 of Maine’s 24 available national delegate seats.

There are still 9 “at large” delegate seats available and some of those are sure to go for Ron Paul as well.

Nevada – Similar attempts to quell Ron Paul supporters in Nevada were apparent when convention goers were made aware of a fake slate of delegates that had been passed around Saturday to fool voters into voting for the wrong delegates. Luckily, the fake slate was discovered and that slate was discarded.

Convention goers were then directed to the slate of delegates that accurately represented which delegate supported which candidate so voters could make correct choices.

Despite those attempts to fool conventioneers, Nevada voters were also successful in defeating the status-quo by voting Paul’s supporters to Convention Chair and Secretary on Saturday.

All together, of Iowa’s 28 available national delegate seats, 23 are known Ron Paul supporters.

Iowans also seated the majority of its alternate delegates as Paul’s, cementing a weekend of total Ron Paul supremacy and assuring the fact that the Ron Paul 2012 campaign is truly on its way to making huge waves in Tampa.

Despite the establishment’s media desperately attempting to have people believe otherwise, Ron Paul now has a real shot of taking the nomination and stealing victory from the jaws of defeat.

All together, this weekend watched Ron Paul win at least 60 national delegates, in these three states alone.

The effort to reduce Ron Paul’s presence on YouTube follows the deliberate under-coverage of the Paul campaign by the establishment media during the 2012 primaries.

In October of last year, a study conducted by Pew Research Center confirmed that the establishment was terrified of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign gaining momentum. An earlier report by the polling organization revealed a concerted effort to ignore Paul.

It makes sense that the CFR would send videos featuring Ron Paul to the memory hole. Ron Paul, after all, is a contagion for liberty and constitutional principles which send the elite into allergic paroxysms.

It’s hard to tell if the idea that Ron Paul cannot win in 2012 is more ignorant, in its complete lack of historical sophistication, or more arrogant, in its claim to certainty amid all the complexity of 300 million lives and the myriad issues that affect them.

Sometimes, perhaps once in a few generations, a nation can undergo what a mathematician or physicist would call a “phase change.” The classic example of such a thing is a pile of sand. Every grain you add makes the pile slightly steeper and slightly higher without moving any of the other grains inside the pile, until eventually one grain is added that causes an avalanche of sand down the sides of the pile, moving thousand of grains and changing the shape of the pile.

Such behavior can be exhibited by all complex systems, and a nation — it should be obvious — is much more complex than a pile of sand.

The important point for those who would presume to make such grand predictions as “Dr. Paul cannot win” is that no examination of the pile of sand before the point of avalanche would tell you that, or when, the avalanche will eventually happen.

But happen it does; indeed, happen it must.

We cannot see past a phase change. I don’t know if the U.S.A. will have undergone one at the time of the 2012 election, but the necessary conditions for one are all in place, as far as I can tell.

One has to reach back a good way in American history for a time of such rapidly rising sentiment that not only are our leaders unable even to think of real solutions to the problems of greatest concern (rather than just making expedient changes at the margin), but also that the prevailing political and economic system is structurally incapable of delivering any long-term solutions in its current form.

The sheer range and interconnectedness of the problems that the nation faces are such that any permanent solution to any one of them will require profound systemic change that will necessarily upset many economic, political and cultural equilibria. And that is nothing more than a definition of a national phase change.

The average American may not know what is to be done, but she can sense when the system has exhausted all its possibilities. At that point, not only does the phase change become reasonable; it becomes desirable — even if what lies on the other side cannot be known.

As anyone can find out just by talking to a broad cross-section of Ron Paul’s supporters, his base is not uniform in its agreement on the standard issues of typical American party-political conflict. In fact, Paul supporters vary significantly even in their views of what in the old left-right paradigm were the “wedge-issues.” Rather, they are united around concepts that could almost be called meta-political: whether left and right really exist, and, if they do, whether they are really opposed; whether centralized government should even be the main vehicle for political change, etc.; and whether there are some principles that should be held sacrosanct for long-term benefit, even when they will hurt in the short-run.

For those with eyes to see, such realignments and re-prioritization may even be glimpses of America after its next phase change.

If Ron Paul has committed support from 10 percent of the adult population, and most of that 10 percent support him precisely because they believe he represents a whole new political system, an entirely new political settlement, then we may be close to critical mass — just a few grains of sand short of the avalanche.

Another piece of evidence that the nation is close to a phase change and a gestalt switch is the very fact that the prevailing paradigm (from which the mainstream media, established political class, etc., operate) has to ignore huge amounts of data about Ron Paul and the movement around him to continue to make any sense. The studied neglect of data as “irrelevant” is invariably indicative that the neglected data are hugely important. If information doesn’t really matter, why go to all the effort of ignoring it?

Specifically, on all the metrics that a year ago everyone accepted as useful indicators of political standing, Ron Paul is not just a front-runner but a strong one.

First, and most directly, he does extremely well in polls. The organization of his grassroots support is not just excellent; it is remarkable, by historic and global measures. His ability to raise money from actual voters is second to none. His appeal to independents and swing voters is an order of magnitude greater than that of his competitors. Secondarily, he has more support from military personnel than all other candidates put together, if measured by donations; he has the most consistent voting record; he has the magical quality of not coming off as a politician; he oozes integrity and authenticity, and, as far as we know, he has a personal life and marriage that reflects deep stability and commitment.

To believe that Ron Paul’s victory is a long shot in spite of all standard indicators that directly contradict this claim is to throw out all norms with which we follow our nation’s politics — and that is a huge thing to do. The only way it can be done honestly is to present another set of contradictory reasons or metrics that are collectively more powerful than all those that you are rejecting. I am yet to find them.

If it is true that the studied neglect of data to hold tight to a paradigm is the best evidence that the paradigm is about to collapse, then the massive and highly subjective neglect of all things Paulian is specific evidence that the country is moving in Paul’s direction.

Of course, none of this means that Paul will definitely win. But it does mean that a bet against him by a politician is foolhardy and by a journalist is dishonest.

If Paul wins, it won’t be because he is the kind of candidate Americans have always gone for. It will be precisely because Americans have collectively decided on a dramatically new way of doing business — a new political and economic paradigm — and then he’ll not only have ceased to be a long shot; he’ll be the only shot.

The liberty movement, brought on in large part by presidential candidate Ron Paul, is much like a powerful tsunami covering long distances on it’s way to the shore. Every hour of every day, the Paul campaign picks up support and energy from people of all political and social backgrounds. Much like the sheer power of the tsunami, Ron Paul’s support only swells, unlike all of the other contenders in the race who have seen massive peaks and crashes in support.

This “liberty tsunami” was undetectable to the average American. Due to the establishment media, when they looked out at the the great ocean we call the status quo, they were only able to see calm establishment waters. Though many knew things were not looking good, they felt reassured by the calm waters, and went about their business.

The waters have now become unsettled, and Ron Paul sounded the tsunami warning to the establishment. The energy has built to a record high, and the status quo is seriously worried. The support and energy of the Ron Paul “liberty tsunami” WILL take out the establishment and begin cleansing our government of corruption.

The tsunami is coming quickly. The ideas of freedom and liberty are popular, and gaining more steam than imaginable. Remember, there is nothing more powerful than an idea who’s time has come, and it can not be stopped by and army or any government.

Pressure mounting for GOP caucus reconsideration

Robert F. Bukaty | AP

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, kicks balloons from the stage after speaking to supporters following his loss in the Maine caucus to Mitt Romney on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, in Portland.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Pressure is mounting on the Maine Republican Party to reconsider its weekend declaration that Mitt Romney won the state’s caucuses, at least until all votes have been counted.

The Maine GOP announced Saturday that Romney narrowly edged Ron Paul, 39 percent to 36 percent, in a nonbinding presidential preference poll taken during the caucuses. The margin was fewer than 200 votes.

A number of communities were not included in that poll because they had not held their caucuses by the deadline spelled out by the state party.

Washington County Republicans postponed their caucuses, originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11, because of a pending snowstorm and will now meet this Saturday. Other communities across the states also have caucuses scheduled for this weekend and later this month.

All along, state GOP officials said communities knew that their votes would not be included in the final results if they did not hold their caucus by Feb. 11.

However, a review of the town-by-town results released Saturday by the Maine GOP suggests that some communities that had caucused prior to Feb. 11 were not counted. Nearly all Waldo County towns held caucuses on Feb. 4 but those towns were blank in the results released by the state party. Additionally, Waterville held its caucuses ahead of time but were not included in the results.

Waldo County GOP Chairman Raymond St. Onge said the results were sent to the state party on Tuesday, Feb. 7. He said those results probably would not have changed the outcome but was disheartened the votes were not included.

St. Onge said he spoke to party officials late Tuesday about why Waldo County’s results were omitted.

“They said it was a clerical error,” St. Onge said. “I’m going to believe them because there were other errors that occurred. I don’t think it was intentional because our results wouldn’t have changed the winner.”

Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said Monday that including all caucus votes likely would not change the outcome of the state’s preference poll. Asked whether the party would consider updating the result to include all communities, he said that is up to the state party committee, which meets next month.

Some big names already are urging the party to reconsider.

“I think it’s not surprising that there would be very strong objections to the notion that our votes wouldn’t count in Washington County,” Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, said Tuesday. “I’ve made known my position that those votes should count and the [GOP] chair said he would take that request to the state committee.”

L. Sandy Maisel, professor of government at Colby College and a Democrat, said the perception seems to be that because the Maine Republican Party establishment largely supported Romney, it was selective when tallying the results.

“It sure looks like they counted what they wanted to count,” he said.

Paul supporters have taken to Facebook to generate interest in Maine’s remaining caucuses. Even Paul supporters in New Hampshire are planning a get out the vote effort in Washington County’s biggest towns this weekend.

In 2008, only 113 Republicans caucused in all of Washington County, according to Webster, and only eight of those voters supported Paul.

But Maisel said that’s not the point. Even if the results don’t change, the party needs to acknowledge that perception is louder than reality at the moment.

“I think this is a red flag to people that want to be part of the party organization because that organization doesn’t seem to exist,” he said. “They came up with a bad process and then decided ‘we can get some publicity.’”

Maisel said he thinks the caucus process should change but doubts that it will.

“To have a beauty contest preference poll makes no sense,” he said. “They should be electing delegates who are pledged to a candidate.”

Raye said he believes that although the Maine results are nonbinding they matter “in the court of public opinion.”

He also said he fully expects record turnout at the Washington County GOP caucuses this weekend.

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